My friends at the Rainforest Cup MTB Race in Kuching, Borneo are amateur web site designers. They know a thing or two about graphic design though!

Take a look at this graphic representation of the 1998 cross country course. It clearly conveys the route and the changes in terrain as well as the climbs and descents. If I had a criticism of it, then there is no scale and no legend for the colour scheme. From reading the text on the original page, it is possible to infer the meaning ...

The original page can be viewed at http://www.visitsarawak.com/rainforest98/xctrack.html

This graphic packs a lot of detail into a small space and is both clear and concise. Edward Tufte has talked a lot about improving the information density in computer based information display. This is a good example of what he has been on about.